Impact of backreflection on upstream transmission in WDM single-fiber loopback access networks

This paper investigates the impact of backreflection lights on upstream transmission in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) single-fiber loopback access networks, where a WDM light source is located at the central office (CO) and each optical network unit (ONU) includes an optical modulator with optical amplifiers. This study considers backreflection lights from two sources, the continuous wave (CW) light at the CO (Reflection-I) and the modulated signal at the ONU (Reflection-II). It is confirmed, for the first time, that the impact of Reflection-II increases strongly with ONU gain. To estimate the impact of these backreflection lights, a simple intensity noise estimation scheme is presented. This scheme clarifies that the acceptable transmission line losses is 10 dB for 1.25 Gb/s under the optical return loss (ORL) of -32 dB.